- Hurry up, please. It's time.

Ok, ok. Here's my outline - but look at how much work is implied. I wrote it about a year ago (2003.09).

- Well, what are you waiting for! Now it is time to work on it.

Before I start, one question please: Why do those who oppose same-sex relations appeal to law, morality, and generally to nature instead of using scriptural metaphor?

- Two choices, my friend: either they do not know how to say anything else, or if they really know me, they realize the argument cuts both ways. You have seen this before and you know what I mean.

Shall I call down fire from heaven to consume them?

- Definitely. So my gentleness shall at last be known in their consumation. But I will not let you cheapen my truth.

I have no desire to do that - knowing you both in your disappointment in me and in your guardian mercy. Off we go then.

  - D R A F T - this is a work in process...

Sexual expression and the Bible

1. Terms of reference
    1.1 in the Bible (vs and the Bible)
    1.2 self-interest (atonement and self interest - save/lose)
    1.3 masturbation
    1.4 fornication
    1.5 adultery
    1.6 relation to God
    1.7 wholeness in Christ

1.1. in the Bible (vs and the Bible)

I have no intention of attempting to describe or explain all sexual expression in the Bible. There is a gamut of course from the daughters of Lot to the rape of Dinah and from the desire of David to the subterfuge of Jonadab that Amnon agreed to. The story of Lot's daughters sounds like a political cartoon at the expense of the Moabites. For the rape of Dinah - also a political statement - nothing beats the Midrash of The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. David and Amnon indicate to us at least that sexual desire was known in those days among men for women. Was this a real desire for women or simply a desire for pleasure at an object's expense? The tension is evident in any desire.

All these examples are intended to be negative. Where are the positive ones? Most people's first reaction to sex is positive, but the fear and desire that wracks the mind and body can make a person think only negatively about sex - especially if one is taught the negative through such ancient examples and has never known the imagery or the reality of the love of God.

1.2. self-interest (atonement and self interest - save/lose)

How does self interest relate to the divine call? Self-interest is both denied and affirmed in scripture. As usual we have a tension that makes us live within a question, rather than an answer that truncates understanding of a half-understood or ill-formed question. Sex and self are of course tightly related and a full and mysterious gift. Is the gift known when it is first given? How does one know such a mystery immediately it is apprehended? One does and one doesn't. There is a grand explanatory difficulty here, mixed at least a bit with the enigmatic sayings of Jesus that what one would save one will lose, but what one gives up for his sake, one will keep to life eternal. 'I am not going there,' some say to me. But I say - 'I have been there, and the fulfillment of the need for newness, forgiveness, a new creature, is astonishing.' I will say more if possible.

1.3. masturbation

Nowhere in the canonical texts is self-stimulation and orgasm criticized. An ancient term for this was Onanism after Onan who refused to impregnate his brother's wife and spilled his seed on the ground. This is not masturbation but coitus interruptus and a deliberate refusal of the Levirate law of marriage. Strange how the only legitimate method of birth control allowed in some circles is this act that is condemned in the story of Onan. All inferences are wrong here. How shall we make legitimate inferences when we judge in advance the gifts of God? Best to listen to the inner voice. This too is a non-trivial thing when there is so much inner noise also. I have written only a negative in this paragraph. For a detailed insight confirming these and other conclusions (and by which we will eventually explicate the means), see Milgrom on Leviticus, especially the Holiness Code in volume 2.

1.4. fornication

I really do not know what this means, but I suspect it has a negative value in that it is related to the use of a gift in an exploitive way. I can believe that female prostitution was a desire to have a fruitful earth and that male prostitution was a prayer for power over others in war. But I do not study these things. The terms will arise in the Biblical framework so we must prepare to gloss them over while looking for the positive images. Fornication such as is practiced widely through pornography does not seem satisfactory, but an exploitation of weakness. 

1.5. adultery

This too is a word that violates. As with fornication, it is a symbol of idolatry: worshipping something less than the worthy. This is not to downplay the gift of sex but to show that the greater gifts are subject to greater distortion. Adultery is committed by the man against a married woman (again see Milgrom, Leviticus).

1.6. relation to God

Sex and Justice - Paul tells us not to defraud another in this matter (1 Thessalonians 4:1-9) - our wholeness determines our actions toward another personally, corporately, and politically - inferences from common social behaviour would not indicate that wholeness is common.

1.7. wholeness in Christ

Here we will begin to see the ultimate positive image of the sexual being. Don't judge in advance whether Jesus, the son of man, or Christ, the risen Jesus is or is not sexual. The King is not called the Bridegroom for nothing. For God's pleasure all things were created. At God's right hand there is pleasure for ever. What is 'forever'?

2. Analysis of a human

Sometimes I wonder if it would be better not to have written. What is written is an attempt to describe. Some things cannot be described. It occurred to me that the whole religious edifice in any culture rests on three things: our human bodily experience, including its sex, the need for power and control, and the fact of faith. It may be that these can be respectively ignored, submitted to, and accepted. Where does that leave description?

    2.1 to self physiologically
    2.2 to other gender
    2.3 to same gender
    2.4 from other gender
    2.5 from same gender
    2.6 to other: God
    2.7 from other: God

I am going to leave the headings above but only for thought.

I have been wondering how to approach the subject - The Secret Gospel of Mark is back in the news again (BAR January/February 2005). One approach is to continue the Secundus story based on the gospels. Another is to consider Paul's letters and try to uncover his experience. He is quite plain on the question, but it is hard for the modern mind to hear. Perhaps there is a degree of blindness also. Yet another is to continue dialogue on the scholarly lists. Coming up with good questions? Does that do it? I am not sure...

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